Thursday, January 21, 2010

Pineapple, Tutti-Frutti and Nut Cake

This is basically a pineapple chiffon cake which I also used once as a base for a pineapple fresh cream cake. I also like this cake as a snack for kids (and me:-) just as is or with nuts and tutti-frutti added as in the below recipe. Should also work if pineapple juice is substituted with orange juice and a little bit of orange rind. Lets try this out sometime. The original recipe says put all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl, pour the wet ingredients in and beat well. Have not tried this, as I am scared the cake might become dense. Anybody tried beating everything together?

Sieve flour, salt and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Separate eggs and put the whites of 8 eggs in a bowl and yolks of 5 eggs in another. Add salad oil and pineapple juice to the yolks and beat till smooth and creamy. Add sugar and food color and blend well. Fold in the flour mixture.

Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until very stiff peaks form. Egg whites can be considered really firm when you can invert the bowl with the whipped whites over our head without you having a snow bath.Kidding:-)). Gently and quickly fold in the egg whites into the batter. Dust the tutti fruity and nuts in flour and mix some into the batter.

Pour into lined pans and top with the remaining fruit and nuts. Bake at 170 degrees C for about 25 minutes or until done.

Please note:

1. Its very important to dust nuts with flour before adding them to the cake batter. The flour helps the nuts stick to the batter and not sink to the bottom of the cake.

2. Cream of tartar: Its an acid salt which helps obtain more volume to the beaten egg whites and stabilize the same too. I found this in Monday to Sunday in the section where baking powder etc are kept. How I wish we had a baking aisle in every supermarket or at least in some here in Bangalore. ..

3. Do not worry if you get some tiny lumps when u mix in the egg whites. I once tried to get rid of the lumps and ended up with a dense cake:-(( . Moral of the story: Better to concentrate on mixing the whites without losing its volume rather than trying to get rid of the lumps...